Kathmandu. Is has been two days of wild activity trying to get last minute items bought, gear sorted and general preparations to fly out Sunday. KTM is just like it was last time I was here. There was a letter on the nightstand from the hotel GM apologizing for the temporary crisis that made power intermittent. It looked like the exat same letter from three years ago. Everything in KTM including cell service and internet are off and on. The only things that are constant are the beeping of horns and the pigeons outside my window. I thought to take my ice axe to them but apparently from my lack of success they have experience with angry climbers and ice axes. Hanging out the six floor window yelling and swinging a sharp tool is apt to bring unwanted attention so for the time being the pigeons win.

I did notice one new thing. At breakfast I was reading the local English language newspaper. There was a large story about a rash of, get this, Boob Grabbing. Apparently it has become an epidemic. The story included stories from victims, six things you can to do to protect yourself from BG’ers and even a sideline about an organization to help the miscreants called BGA – that is Boob Grabbers Anonymous. I got a couple of extra papers to take home to my friends at the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. I am sure they will find this cutting edge journalism truely inspiring. Really, you can’t make this stuff up.